Best Upgrade for my System?

J

jfnirvana292

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 9, 2002
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Hey all, I’m considering upgrading my pc, but wondering where I’d be best to spend money.

I’m a software engineer, so I do some occasional development. Depending on what I do, it can be a bit demanding. Otherwise it’s normal office type tasks and occasionally playing a game of minecraft with my sons.

Here are my specs:

Ryzen 5600x
16gb Mushkin
GIGABYTE B450 I AORUS PRO
Gtx 1660 super

Thanks!
 
jfnirvana292 said:
Hey all, I’m considering upgrading my pc, but wondering where I’d be best to spend money.

I’m a software engineer, so I do some occasional development. Depending on what I do, it can be a bit demanding. Otherwise it’s normal office type tasks and occasionally playing a game of minecraft with my sons.

Here are my specs:

Ryzen 5600x
16gb Mushkin
GIGABYTE B450 I AORUS PRO
Gtx 1660 super

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Software Engineering implies coding over gaming, and that means a 5900X or 5950X CPU - double the cores (more than double with the 5950X), faster core clock, relatively inexpensive, simple drop-in replacement. Additional RAM -- may -- be helpful to you and is also inexpensive, but Graphics don't seem to really factor in on what you do.

edit: Typos
 
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RAM prices have tumbled probably hasn't hit rock bottom, but you can get 32GB 3200MHz CL16 DDR4 for < $70.
Used 5900X are priced well these days if you don't mind buying used ~$280. New is ~$340.
I guessing you are getting good FPS so no need to upgrade GPU.
 
I would suggest more RAM, and then probably leave the rest of it alone. It's the least expensive upgrade as well, which is helpful.

Ryzen 5600X is plenty fast for everything except big code compilations. The used 5800x/5900x/5950x chips are only going to get cheaper for the foreseeable future, so if you don't *need* more cores (for your development work/day job) then I'd save your money for now.

You said you play Minecraft occasionally as your gaming needs. There is no world in which a 1660 Super becomes incapable of playing Minecraft in the near future. In reality, assuming you're playing in 1080p with modest settings expectations (targeting 60fps at medium-ish detail levels) you can play whatever you want with a 1660 Super.

Or just hold out in general. You didn't tell us whether your existing system is lacking in some way. Even 16GB of RAM is more than plenty for most day-to-day work and gaming, unless you are seemingly incapable of closing a browser tab (*cough* like my wife *cough*) in which case the extra RAM might help with your 100+ tabs.
 
sinisterDei said:
I would suggest more RAM, and then probably leave the rest of it alone. It's the least expensive upgrade as well, which is helpful.

Ryzen 5600X is plenty fast for everything except big code compilations. The used 5800x/5900x/5950x chips are only going to get cheaper for the foreseeable future, so if you don't *need* more cores (for your development work/day job) then I'd save your money for now.

You said you play Minecraft occasionally as your gaming needs. There is no world in which a 1660 Super becomes incapable of playing Minecraft in the near future. In reality, assuming you're playing in 1080p with modest settings expectations (targeting 60fps at medium-ish detail levels) you can play whatever you want with a 1660 Super.

Or just hold out in general. You didn't tell us whether your existing system is lacking in some way. Even 16GB of RAM is more than plenty for most day-to-day work and gaming, unless you are seemingly incapable of closing a browser tab (*cough* like my wife *cough*) in which case the extra RAM might help with your 100+ tabs.
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My companies work machine is a i7 with 32GB of ram and sometimes it’s rough with that even. For my own home projects it seems adequate right now. For video games I do 4k but minecraft is smooth and has no issues.

I saw a lot of prices came down recently so I’m looking to potentially upgrade and help future proof it.

It’s sounding like ram is the best bang for the buck upgrade now so I’ll start looking around. Otherwise maybe hold out for a processor or a video card down the road when prices come down more even.
 
Ram is the best option. For any dev work, the appropriate amount of ram is 'as much as you can afford'
 
A 1660 with 4K could get rough if you journey outside of minecraft.

I'd also keep an eye out for great deals on RAM and a drop in CPU upgrade. 32GB can be had pretty cheap, and I've seen pretty good deals on 5900/5950s if you wait for a good deal and pounce when you see it. I would probably find a deal on 2x16GB and repurpose the 16GB you have now. 3600 C16 or C18 is not that much more money than 3200 and is supposedly the "sweet spot" for Zen3.

I wouldn't bother with the motherboard until you're ready for a full system update. Then again, I'd probably just keep that the way it is until you do a full update as it's pretty well balanced the way it is.
 
Ordered Kingston 2x16gb. Giving my son my ram. No idea what benches to perfect before and after to see if it’s faster though.
 
Capacity of RAM won't affect benchmark scores for the most part.

RAM is like the "you must be this tall to ride this ride" line at a rollercoaster. Until you've got enough, you basically can't get on the ride, but once you have enough more doesn't help.
 
sinisterDei said:
Capacity of RAM won't affect benchmark scores for the most part.

RAM is like the "you must be this tall to ride this ride" line at a rollercoaster. Until you've got enough, you basically can't get on the ride, but once you have enough more doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Surely there must be something I can use to tell if it helped me? Perhaps fps in a gaming benchmark or?
 
When you expand RAM, do something that where the system struggled before and see if it doesn't struggle now. Open 100 tabs in Chrome. Compile something big. Etc.
 
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